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Blog, Page 12

Conservation Project at Maori Meeting House

Recording Hinemihi using Computational Photography On Sunday the 23rd June 2013, a team from the University of Southampton took part in Hinemihi’s annual Maintenance Day. Using cameras, combined with new computational photography techniques, the team recorded some interesting details of Hinemihi. Hinemihi is a Maori Meeting House, one of only four outside of New Zealand. Hinemihi is situated in the grounds of Clandon Park, a National Trust managed site. Continue reading →

The Battle for the Mediterranean: Digitally Recording an Underwater Roman Battlefield

Several kilometers off the Sicilian coast, in over 100 meters of water lies an underwater battlefield that stands testament to one Age replacing another. Using the latest technology and scientific methods from Archaeology, Engineering, and the National Oceanographic Centre at the University of Southampton, these ancient warships are being reverse engineered in order to understand one history's most critical junctures: the slow decline of the Hellenistic Period and the start of the Roman Period. Continue reading →

Outstanding Biographies: The Forgotten Lives of Prehistoric Monuments in Europe

Next Friday, 6 September 2013, we will be running a very special session at the 19th Annual Meeting of the EAA in Pilsen (Czech Republic), a session dedicated to the lives of prehistoric monuments in Iron Age, Roman and Medieval Europe. Leading scholars in the field will be gathered to present the outstanding biographies of some megalithic monuments, stelae, statue-menhirs and rock art sites in various European and Mediterranean regions. Continue reading →

Icons RTI case study

Icons: Production  techniques and examination methodology Icon or ikon from Greek eikōn is a representation of a sacred or sanctified Christian personage used in religious worship in the Russian or Greek Orthodox Church. The production of icons has been described by the monk Dionisios ek Fourna in 1728-1733. Icons are typically painted on a wooden panel with the egg tempera painting technique, over a layer of gypsum and glue (preparation layer). Continue reading →

Seminars 2013-2014

 We’re currently planning this year’s Centre for Archaeology of Human Origins seminar series after the great success of the series last year.  Thanks again to all those speakers from 2012-13 and to see the range and quality of last year check out the past events on the seminars page.  Thanks must go to the Humanities Graduate School for funding of the series last year. Keep checking in to see who and when speakers are presenting. Continue reading →

Illyrian Coast Field School: Montenegro’s Underwater Caves, Submerged Cities, and Shipwrecks

The Illyrian Coastal Exploration Program (ICEP) underwater sciences field school traveled from Croatia (the topic of my previous blog post) to the Regional Center for Underwater Demining (RCUD). The RCUD is the top commercial diving and training facility in Montenegro. Students explored the rich maritime cultural heritage around Kotor Bay, including an underwater cave, submerged portions of an ancient city, and of course shipwrecks. Continue reading →

Charting celebrity

I have been discovering how Google NGRAM can answer all sorts of niggling questions about fame, celebrity and novelty http://books.google.com/ngrams . What it does is search the 5 million books that have been digitised between 1500 and 2000. This adds up to about 4 per cent of all the books published and a staggering 500 billion words. By any standards this is a big sample. Continue reading →